January 23, 2018

The President of Equatorial Guinea, Mr Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, on Tuesday in Abuja, applauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts in checking the activities of Boko Haram sect.

Mbasogo, who made the commendation when he briefed State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, noted that President Buhari had been doing “a great job’’ in the fight against insurgency within and beyond Nigeria.

The visiting president, who spoke through an interpreter, noted that President Buhari had so far succeeded in degrading the Boko Haram insurgents.

According to him, the insurgent group is almost eliminated but for pockets of attacks still being carried out by them.

“I congratulated my dear brother, President Buhari, for the great work he has been doing in the fight against the terrorist group called Boko Haram and all its implications.

“It has not been easy and we realize that this sect can actually carry out their scourge all over the sub-region.

“We know very well that it spread all the way from Chad, Cameroun, Niger and even today we know a lot of havoc had been done in Mali.

“But we know he has been doing a great job and today we can tell because we all know it that he has almost eradicated the menace of Boko Haram apart from minor, minor scourge of insurgencies that are happening from time to time and in places,’’ he said.

Mbasogo, who spoke in Spanish, said the meeting also discussed security concerns in the neighbouring West African countries.

He added that he and Buhari observed the need to work together with a view to securing a common ground for development and cooperation to achieve desired goals.

The president, who also narrated how his country survived sponsored political unrest orchestrated by some terrorists from Chad and Sudan in collaboration with a group of deviants from France, disclosed that his decision to promptly reach out to Cameroon to put the situation under control.

On the political crisis in Southern Cameroon that resulted in the influx of refugees into Nigeria, Mbasogo advocated for dialogue as the best solution to the problem.

According to him, there is no country without its own peculiar crisis, saying it only behoves on the parties concerned to put heads together and embrace dialogue as the platform for solution to the crisis.

He said: “Cameroon is a big nation whose crisis requires the concern of all forces. There is no nation without its own crisis.

“What is required is to seek solution through dialogue and use it to find a common axis. Those seeking refuge in other lands need to sit down together and find solution through dialogue. It is only through that, they can find solution to the crisis.’’

On the challenge of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, Mbasogo who said the pirates were destroying and sabotaging Nigeria’s development effort in the area, expressed the readiness of his country to continue to ensure security in the Gulf of Guinea region.